Staff Reporter
Spokesperson to Punjab Government and Punjab Minister for Prisons Fayyazul Hassan Chohan on Wednesday said that the expenses of Chief Minister’s Office have been reduced by 76 percent, saying that on directives of the CM details of all expenditures spent in different heads have been made public.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the minister said that during year 2017-18, 173 vehicles were in used of the CM’s Office whereas, which has been reduced to 110 during 2020-21 including vehicles used by officers and personnel of CM Secretariat.
In the previous regime 2017-18, Rs42 million were spent on the maintenance of vehicles whereas expenditures in this head remained limited to only Rs15 million during 2020-21.
In 2017-18, 372,000 litre oil was used in the vehicles of CM office, while in 2020-21 only 228,000 litres fuel was utilized.
During 2017-18, Rs35 million were spent in the fuel head in the CM’s office, whereas during 2020-21, despite increase in petrol prices, only Rs27 million were spent.
The non-salary expenditure of the CM Office was Rs240 million during 2017-18, which has been curtailed to only Rs14o million in 2020-21.
Similarly, Rs90 million were spent in the head of entertainment and gifts in 2017-18 whereas Rs44 million were spent in 2020-21 under this head.
Similarly, in 2017-18 Rs96 million was spent from the Chief Minister’s discretionary funds in 2017-18 while only Rs23 million was spent in the same head during 2020-21.
The Minister said that comparison analysis of these two years revealed that during the tenure of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar 64 percent expenditures in the vehicle maintenance head were saved, similarly, 39 percent amount as compared to previous tenures were saved in the head of fuel charges, 36 percent in the utilization of cars, 26 percent in the use of other fuels, 40 percent in non-salary expenditures whereas expenses in the head of entertainment and gifts have been reduced by 50 percent.
As compared to Chief Minister’s discretionary grant in 2020-21 the same is 76 percent less than the previous government in 2017-18.
The spokesperson further maintained that transparency is the hallmark of the PTI government and top priority gives to the same in CM Secretariat. There is no ambiguity about the fuel cost and funds but information on some certain issues cannot be made public due to security reasons, he added.
Launching of austerity campaign, on the instructions of Chief Minister Punjab is being yielded positive results. The former process of lavish spending in the Chief Minister’s Office has been ceased.
One official residence adjacent to the Chief Minister’s Office has also resulted in a significant reduction in expenditures, he concluded.
